A small island of good sense has popped up in the tumultuous ocean of smartphone patents: Apple and HTC have quit their legal battles for now.
Specifics of the deal haven’t been announced, beyond a cessation of all legal action worldwide, along with a ten-year licensing agreement between the two companies, covering both present …

The Android reality distortion field is quite powerful. Apple and HTC have a common enemy, Samsung and not just hardware and software in the Android camp is fragmented but business strategies and cross-licensing strategies as well. Fragmented they will fall.

Re: Android fragmentation is logarithmic

Re: Android fragmentation is logarithmic

Tally so far:

HTC - settled with secret agreement (for all we know Apple may be paying them).

Samsung - lost a jury trial, but the verdict won't be upheld on appeal because of the foreman's links to Apple, potential conflict of interest. Samsung won the trial that had Apple write/hide/rewrite/hide by a different method statement on its UK website. Samsung products are cleared throughout the EU.

Re: Payment of License fees?

"HTC must have said it, otherwise they wouldn't have said the fees won't materially impact their balance sheet."

What HTC said was "There is no material adverse impact on the financials of the Company".

Which mentions nothing about licensing fees and as that is an investor statement it could be anything from there was no costs at all or that HTC had to close down their litigation costs with a final payment or a settlement fee of some kind. It is a big leap to suggest it means licensing fees were paid.

HTC are unlikely to have given The Register an exclusive on specific details for a confidential agreement between themselves and Apple.

"Either that, or the Reg author made the whole thing up, which I find hard to believe."

@DaLo - Re: Payment of License fees?

There is no material adverse impact on the financials of HTC as long as they will stop selling Android phones. This is what Apple was looking for, they were never interest in getting any money from HTC. Actually, Apple could even have paid HTC some money just to get them quit using Android.

Oh man, sorry had to laugh, you really believe any company in tech has "friends"?

Even if they did, do you think Apple would want any of them as friends after the years of trash talk they got, yes including from HTC's Peter Chou and their then (maybe still) best buddy at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer?

Stupid HTC Management

Why did they do this? By accepting Apples agreement they have given some validity to the nonsense patents Apple holds. If they had held out chances are the patents that haven't already been ripped up by the USPTO will be gone in a few weeks. Are they still going to pay Apple if that happens? They would have been much better off going to court and demanding that Apple prove the validity of their patents. It wouldn't have cost them anything as once they had been thrown out for being obvious HTC would have been able to claim all their costs back from Apple.

Samsung is still the perceived threat to Apple, Samsung have being innovating on the range to electric/electronic in the same way that the Japanese did during the 70's and 80's. Samsung also have an advantage over Apple in the range of goods they produce, laptops, laser printers, televisions, DVD players, MP3 players, camcorders, refrigerators, air conditioners, air purifiers, washers, microwave ovens, and vacuum cleaners. If you live in the far east you may also have a Samsung credit card, insurance, or have been to their theme park.

This gives Samsung a huge advantage over crApple in terms of customer sentiment, If you've got a Samsung product you are happy then you are likely to buy another Samsung product such as a fondle slab or phone.

I said Samsung is still the perceived threat to crApple, the real threat to Apple is...... Apple, IN a joint statement release by HTC and Apple Peter Chou (HTC's CX) and Tim Cook announced that they were pleased to have resolved this dispute with Apple both companies can focus on innovation instead of litigation. Thankfully Tim Cook doesn't seem to be blighted with Steve Jobs's obsession of destroying android and has realised that it is innovation that gives a company the 'edge' over its competitors.

Re: Stupid HTC Management @Wang N Staines

My beer fridge is a Samsung - but I don't care what it looks like as it's stuck in the garage. That's about as much innovation as they do - generally the stuff works but let's not kid ourselves it's not made the same as Apple or even many others.

they need to be careful - HTC, Asus or ?? could easily come out with the new 'best' Android phone and Samsung are in trouble AND they lose Apple as a customer.

Re: Stupid HTC Management

@AC 10:52GMT - Re: Stupid HTC Management @Wang N Staines

HTC can no longer come out with any Android phone, ever. This was the goal of both Microsoft and Apple lawsuits brought against them. From now on, HTC will be a proud member lost in the mass of Winows Phone makers, and die a slow death there.

I'm probably wrong but...

My guess is that Apple are playing Taiwan off against mainland China to secure themselves a better unit price, the margin difference being far better in the long run for Apple than having to settle with Samsung in South Korea with it's more progressive workers rights and safety legislation (=greater costs). The issue for HTC however is that it will be seen as sleeping with the enemy. If Apple can force them to self alienate themselves then that serves them well even if HTC are off the hook for 10 years.

Re: I'm probably wrong but...

It does sound a bit off the mark, not sure what you mean by playing Taiwan vs mainland China?

Are you aware that Foxconn (as well as Wintek and almost all far east electronics suppliers) is a Taiwanese company, but like many Taiwanese companies they also operate in China? There isn't much to play there.

Taiwan-China relations are not always what they seem either.

As for Samsung many of their factories are based in China as well, and let's not have any fantasies about worker's safety legislation in South Korea (google "Stop Samsung No More Deaths" to see for yourself)

@ge - Re: Big gotcha

Nope! you theory doesn't explain sudden switch from Android to Windows phones that HTC is undertaking. They don't pay any money, they don't get any money. They will be allowed to live with the condition that they quit producing Android phones. This is the real game, my friend.

Re: @ge - Big gotcha

Erm, there's been no sudden switch. HTC started out as a Windows Mobile phone maker and have brought out phones in nearly all Windows handheld generations. Just because they brought out 2 Windows 8 phones (HTC 8S & 8X) doesn't mean they are switching to Windows. Even Samsung joined in the Windows 8 mobile "bandwagon" with the Samsung Activ S phone.

All it means is that they feel Windows 8 to be a viable market to sell some phones, no sudden switching.

proably

the only reason apple bothered to settle is because they're getting closed in on from all sides. There are only so many lawsuits you can juggle at one time. Why split your resources 10 ways, when you can quickly settle or end court cases and then split the resources only 5 ways.

Maybe a bit of sense at last. Best think would be for Samsung to pay up / agree to license the IP they infringed and then cross license the rest and just design / build the best devices without all this going on. Lawyers win.

Re: HTC = safer Microsoft from now on.

Not of interest to Android

If I remember correctly, all of the features that allegedly infringed Apple patents were HTC-specific features such as slide-to-unlock. Google has already coded around them, and had already done so when the case started.